Pages

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Gingerbread Tree Building

Now that Christmas is over, there are plenty of deals to be had on things that did not sell by December 25. One thing we noticed at our grocery store over the weekend was a gingerbread Christmas tree kit. L not only noticed it but also insisted on getting it.

Better than half price!

A new project was begun in our home! L and Mommy worked together to make a tree just as beautiful and stable as the one on the box cover. The first task was to empty the box and find all the tools needed.

Inside the box--decorations, instructions, star templates, and dough

The dough came pre-made so "all" they had to do was bring out the rolling pin and roll it out to the width of a pound coin. We had to search around for the proper coin. Even with that, rolling the whole thing to the proper depth was quite a challenge.

Be happy in your work!

Rolling it out carefully

L was an enthusiastic but unskilled helper. At one point, while we were distracted by something else, she dumped a cup of flour on top of the dough and rubbed it in. This made the dough less sticky, true, but caused various other problems. Still, we persevered and eventually had the required number of stars cut out and baked.

Not Christmas stars but tree levels

After the stars cooled, we cut the tips off the frosting bags and attempted to frost according to the package directions. I had hoped L would be able to help more with this, but she was more interested in "spilling" frosting and then "cleaning it up" (by licking) rather than actual decorating. Finally, all the stars were decorated.

L caught on camera sampling the icing

Next, we were supposed to put small dabs of frosting to attach the layers together, allowing 20 minutes between each layer so that the frosting could set. These directions were completely impractical with an impatient 3 year old helper (and an impatient grown up, too). We tried to wait for the frosting to set, but didn't really allow enough time between layers.

The skillful foreshadowing of the previous paragraph should give you the proper sense of foreboding for the next set of pictures, which were taken in the 5 minutes immediately after final tree assembly.

Cock-eyed optimism that it will remain standing

Suddenly not so sure

Falling....

Fallen

L still wanted to eat the tree since the icing was sooo yummy.

It was a fun project, but I wouldn't recommend trying to put a tree like this together to serve to anyone.